Oh the irony.

From 365gay.com:

Westboro Baptist Church says it intends to state a protest at the funeral of Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Falwell died died Tuesday at age 73. The funeral will be Tuesday at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church he founded, in Lynchburg, Virginia.

On its Web site, Westboro says it will "preach" outside the funeral "of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like 'God loves everyone.'"

The church is run by the Rev. Fred Phelps (pictured) and its 70 members are made up mostly of Phelps' relatives. Although it professes to be Baptist it is not affiliated with any national Baptist group.

In attacking Falwell the church says he "warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White (of Souflorce), and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc."

The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro operates Web sites including GodHatesFags and GodHatesAmerica and has been described as a cult.

Phelps and the church first came to national attention when he organized a protest by his followers outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepherd, the gay college student who was beaten to death in Wyoming. The killing, Phelps' protest, and the reaction of townsfolk led to the play "The Laramie Project."

Church members routinely demonstrate at the funerals of AIDS victims and most recently at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Lately it has pointed its criticism overseas. Last month the Swedish royal family hired a lawyer after hundreds of threatening faxes clogged the offices of various members of the royal family threatening they will "spend eternity in hell" and suggesting various members of the family, including King Carl Gustaf, are gay.

Falwell for his part was no friend to the gay community.

Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 Falwell declared that gays and pro choice advocates were to blame.

In 2003 Falwell announced that he was putting aside everything to devote his time to passage of a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage and in the 2004 election campaign he worked with Republicans to use same-sex marriage as a wedge issue.

Soulforce founder Mel White at one time worked with Falwell but the two split after White came out.

Labels: anti gay

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 4:52 PM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.